John's last post outlined most of what we did during First Week, but let me update you on Friday’s class, because it was awesome! We’ve been studying a lot of political theory (and practice) and we’re just starting to get into what for me is the most fascinating part of the “art of insurgency”: the …
The Art of Insurgency
Thursday, Week One, Block 7, Year 4. This week is the first of four in which a group of 14 Colorado College students will be focusing their academic energy on the connections between acts of insurgency, civil disobedience, protest, regime opposition and performance. The focus is largely in the Balkans. What roles did performance play …
Oh No
My 7th block was canceled a few months ago because the professor is directing the epic stage masterpiece Angels in America: Millennium Approaches instead, so I decided this would be a good time to get my Q credit out of the way. (The Q stands for Quantitative Reasoning, by the way, and it's difficult to get one …
To start, some odds and ends. Here are a few photos from my Brasilia book with modern day comparisons. I had originally meant to replicate the exact angle but forgot. You still get the general idea though. One thing that really surprised me about Brasilia was its extensive bike lanes. When I was first driving …
Worlds
Street From a distance, a lady named Shaman see us coming and cries out, “It’s the Christians!” That’s not completely true as I am Jewish, but Homeless Outreach--the group with which I am volunteering--is a a Christian faith based group. We approach Shaman and the others, sitting on benches and on the ground around a …
Superblocks and South Lake
One really gets of a sense of the “planning” aspect of urban planning when it comes to the superblocks. Superblocks made up the core concept of what the utopian architects of this city had planned. Here are some numbers: Exhibit A- a building: 11 of these = 1 superblock 4 superblocks = 1 neighborhood (around …
The Many (Many) Works of Oscar Niemeyer
Roberto picked me up from my hotel in his Ford Fusion to start our tour. Yes, even though 90% of Brasilia’s famous sights are on the main street of the city, a car tour was the only way to go about seeing them all in one day. Like I’ve said before, not walker friendly. Roberto …
Kris
Yesterday was amazing. I didn't get a chance to blog about it, but now I'm sitting in Colorado Coffee and it's cold out and I'm wearing flip-flops, so I basically have no choice. Anyway. Yesterday we had an incredible opportunity to Skype with Kris Diaz, the playwright who wrote Chad Deity and was nominated for a …
Brasilia
Despite what TripAdvisor told me, the people at the front desk of my hotel do not speak English. That would have been fine if I knew that beforehand, but since I was expecting “Excellent English skills” I didn’t exactly do a lot of research, figuring it would be easy to just ask the front desk. …
Cognito
Well, Idris found out about my blog, so I've got to be more careful about what I say. Hopefully he doesn't find my secret blog where I just complain about him--no one tell him where that one is. Anyway, today we read a play called The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. It's by a guy …
